Press Releases
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a historic hearing entitled "Continuing Injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre." The hearing featured three survivors of the May 31 – June 1, 1921 massacre that destroyed the Black Greenwood section of Tulsa, a prosperous community known as "the Black Wall Street." One survivor, 106-year-old Lessie Beddingfield Randle, told the panel: "I have waited so long for justice."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today spoke from the House floor in support of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, intended to address violence aimed at Asian Americans during the pandemic and intended to improve the reporting and enforcement of all hate crimes more broadly.
The measure is expected to pass the House later today.
In his remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:
In addition to $15.1 million in homelessness prevention grants in April
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the Memphis Housing Authority will receive 190 housing vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to prevent homelessness. The voucher funding comes from the American Rescue Plan President Biden signed into law in March.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Cohen voted for H.R. 1065, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. This vital bipartisan legislation expands the rights of working women by establishing the right to reasonable accommodations in the workplace for pregnant workers. It also prohibits employers from discriminating against pregnant applicants in hiring, retaliating against workers for requesting accommodation and forcing workers to take paid or unpaid leave if accommodations can be made instead.
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) delivered an impassioned speech in response to comments from Members of Congress that downplayed the events that took place at the Capitol on January 6.
In those remarks, Congressman Cohen said, in part:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) voted for, and the House passed, the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act with amendments that the Congressman offered and cosponsored to extend the bill's protections for consumers from predatory debt collection practices.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today released the following statement regarding the closure of the I-40 Hernando DeSoto bridge over the Mississippi River for emergency maintenance.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Subcommittee on Aviation, today announced a grant of $15,000,000 to Memphis International Airport from the Department of Transportation (DOT) to support the ongoing construction of deicing pads and associated facilities.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today introduced the Interstate Rail Compacts Advancement Act, a bill to create multi-state passenger rail commissions to promote regional coordination and sustain a vision of passenger rail service across America.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
Washington, D.C. – Today, Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09), Bobby L. Rush (IL-01) and Barbara Lee (CA-13) held a virtual forum on J. Edgar Hoover's FBI Counterintelligence Programs (COINTELPRO), recently featured in the Academy Award-winning film "Judas and the Black Messiah" which dramatizes the FBI-orchestrated assassination of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969. The forum focused on the stories of those affected, contemporary impacts, policy changes made in response to the revelations of the abuses of COINTELPRO, and the work that remains to be done.